In fact, yes, I did put this off so long that it's two weeks late. You'll have to excuse me, I have been somewhat distracted with the REDACTED .

In only approximate order of favoriteness, here is my year-end wrap-up. As in previous years, a few of the entries on the following list were released earlier than 2008, but that is when I discovered them, so I'm allowing a little slack (but less slack than in previous years!) In 2008, I acquired roughly the same amount of new music as I did last year, but this year a lot more of it was recently-released: roughly 230 new releases and 100ish old ones.

I think all of these bands have made appearances on the jwz mixtapes this year.

I spent a week trying to write a couple of sentences about each of these telling you why you should listen to them, like I did ineachofthelastsevenyears (!!) but you know what? That's a pain in the ass, and I'm not really very good at writing about music. I'm not convinced any of you read this crap anyway. So, instead, here's a list of roughly forty albums that were released roughly last year that you should listen to because I loved them and you trust me.

I feel a little bad about doing it this way, because I know that when I come across someone's un-annotated list of favorite music, even I am less likely to click the links, and I'm a near-pathologically compulsive seeker of new music. But, if you've been listening to my mixtapes, you know what kind of things I like, and you've already heard all of these anyway.

I appreciate it that you post mixtapes. I've come to the show a bit late, didn't catch your premiere performance, only started listening to the tapes late last year. It's nice to hear music I might not otherwise discover.

I've been reading your blog for a number of years now. Not sure if I mentioned it before, but I first encountered your posted prose in the Netscape internal newsgroups. Your comments were always insightful or amusing, and you don't disappoint here, either.

I read this crap, although I probably only catch a little over half of the mixtapes before the streams expire. You definitely cover an area of the music space that generally isn't heard on Radio Paradise, my main source for new-to-me music, so thanks for that public service.

I read this crap; the year end wrap-ups have been amusing and entirely helpful. Your mixtapes have been my primary resource for new music over the last year, so I'm grateful that you keep putting them out.

I bought two LCD Soundsystem albums this year on the strength of hearing Someone Great on two mixtapes. It's pretty good stuff; their occasional similarity to Hot Chip makes me wonder if you've listened to any of the latter?

Mind you, I also bought Plagiarism 2.0 based on the fact that Rocked By Rape is possibly my favourite thing that appeared on the mixtapes to date, and that was a rather large and stinky mistake - the only other thing worth listening to on the album is The Fucking Moon and I suspect the novelty value will wear off in another couple of plays.

Oh, I read this crap and enjoy it actually. In years past you've given a nod to new NIN albums. The two that were released last year didn't tickle your fancy then?

Not being privy to the 230 new albums you acquired last year means you could well have already listened to the two I'm about to recommend and may have already decided they were a bit crap. Nevertheless, two albums released in 2008 that I thought were quite good: